Despite accusations that social services such as BBM and Twitter were responsible for facilitating last week's UK riots, senior police figures have revealed they did not request that the services be switched off.

Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday the government is examining whether to stop individuals using social media if they are plotting violence or crime. However, the Metropolitan Police's acting deputy commissioner Tim Godwin told the Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday that while the Met did mull over getting social networks temporarily closed down during the riots, it backed away from such a plan, citing questions over legality.

"The legality of that is very questionable and additionally it is also a very useful intelligence asset. We did not request that that was turned off but it is something we are pursuing as part of our investigative strategy," he added.